girldogvan
Junior Member
Hopping on here to add my story about dealing with RAM Customer Care and their response to a recall so hopefully others who come across this thread will know what to expect when it comes to the treatment of their customers:
I used all of my savings to buy my 2019 RAM Promaster with 60k miles in March of 2023. I worked night and day for a few months to build out the inside so I could live in it while achieving my dream of traveling around the country. Unfortunately, just 4 months after I bought the van, its transmission failed as a result of the 44A recall which left it completely undrivable. This was the beginning of a 9 month long ordeal of dealing with poor customer service from a RAM Dealership and RAM Customer care.
Ultimately my van was at the dealership for 4 months. During that time I had to find a place to stay (I was living in my van) and cancel any plans I had for the summer. Throughout this time I also had to deal with terrible communication from the dealership. Rarely giving me updates, not returning calls, and then getting an attitude with me whenever I showed the smallest bit of frustration over their lack of communication. The first 6 weeks it just sat on the lot because the dealership claimed they didn’t have anyone to work on it.
The dealership told me to file a claim with RAM Customer Care to help cover some of the expenses I had incurred for the 4 months that they had possession of it. My case manager said she needed to talk to the dealership to confirm that my vehicle was actually there from the beginning of July to November, even though I provided text messages from the dealership showing my appointment date confirmation. For almost 5 months she claimed she couldn’t get a hold of the dealership but she needed to keep trying due to “protocol” then ultimately denied my entire case last week, saying that I didn’t qualify for a goodwill reimbursement because my warranty had expired and my mileage was too high….
By definition, a goodwill reimbursement refers to compensation or payment provided by a company to a customer as a gesture of goodwill or to maintain customer satisfaction, even though the company may not be legally obligated to do so. Goodwill reimbursements are typically offered in situations where the company acknowledges a mistake, error, or inconvenience caused to the customer, and seeks to remedy the situation by offering compensation beyond what is required by contract or policy. All that I had been through with this company, between the dealership and customer care, for the past 9 months was at minimum an inconvenience caused by a mistake/error on their part in the form of a recall. If my case doesn’t qualify for “goodwill” then I don’t know what does. Warranty Expiration and mileage should not be part of the consideration for a goodwill reimbursement, especially not on a car that was less than 4 years old and well under 100,000 miles.
There is SO MUCH MORE to this story and so many extremely problematic interactions with both customer care and the dealership but one of the worst parts is that Stellantis, the company that owns RAM, made a record net profit of $20 billion last year (an 11% increase from 2022) but couldn’t even reimburse me for the relatively small amount of expenses that I incurred from a recall.
This entire situation has caused me so much stress over the last 9 months. Unfortunately I now regret spending all my savings on my RAM Promaster Van. I wish I had seen more threads like this to have some insight on how RAM treats their customers before I purchased it. This experience has actually been so traumatic for me that I am now scared to even drive my van very much because if something else happens that is out of my control, now I know that I won’t be taken care of by RAM. @RamCares your customers deserve better.
I used all of my savings to buy my 2019 RAM Promaster with 60k miles in March of 2023. I worked night and day for a few months to build out the inside so I could live in it while achieving my dream of traveling around the country. Unfortunately, just 4 months after I bought the van, its transmission failed as a result of the 44A recall which left it completely undrivable. This was the beginning of a 9 month long ordeal of dealing with poor customer service from a RAM Dealership and RAM Customer care.
Ultimately my van was at the dealership for 4 months. During that time I had to find a place to stay (I was living in my van) and cancel any plans I had for the summer. Throughout this time I also had to deal with terrible communication from the dealership. Rarely giving me updates, not returning calls, and then getting an attitude with me whenever I showed the smallest bit of frustration over their lack of communication. The first 6 weeks it just sat on the lot because the dealership claimed they didn’t have anyone to work on it.
The dealership told me to file a claim with RAM Customer Care to help cover some of the expenses I had incurred for the 4 months that they had possession of it. My case manager said she needed to talk to the dealership to confirm that my vehicle was actually there from the beginning of July to November, even though I provided text messages from the dealership showing my appointment date confirmation. For almost 5 months she claimed she couldn’t get a hold of the dealership but she needed to keep trying due to “protocol” then ultimately denied my entire case last week, saying that I didn’t qualify for a goodwill reimbursement because my warranty had expired and my mileage was too high….
By definition, a goodwill reimbursement refers to compensation or payment provided by a company to a customer as a gesture of goodwill or to maintain customer satisfaction, even though the company may not be legally obligated to do so. Goodwill reimbursements are typically offered in situations where the company acknowledges a mistake, error, or inconvenience caused to the customer, and seeks to remedy the situation by offering compensation beyond what is required by contract or policy. All that I had been through with this company, between the dealership and customer care, for the past 9 months was at minimum an inconvenience caused by a mistake/error on their part in the form of a recall. If my case doesn’t qualify for “goodwill” then I don’t know what does. Warranty Expiration and mileage should not be part of the consideration for a goodwill reimbursement, especially not on a car that was less than 4 years old and well under 100,000 miles.
There is SO MUCH MORE to this story and so many extremely problematic interactions with both customer care and the dealership but one of the worst parts is that Stellantis, the company that owns RAM, made a record net profit of $20 billion last year (an 11% increase from 2022) but couldn’t even reimburse me for the relatively small amount of expenses that I incurred from a recall.
This entire situation has caused me so much stress over the last 9 months. Unfortunately I now regret spending all my savings on my RAM Promaster Van. I wish I had seen more threads like this to have some insight on how RAM treats their customers before I purchased it. This experience has actually been so traumatic for me that I am now scared to even drive my van very much because if something else happens that is out of my control, now I know that I won’t be taken care of by RAM. @RamCares your customers deserve better.